Roger
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2010
- Messages
- 144
I think your numbers are a bit off in my mind, considering your trip lengths I wouldn't say solar is a requirement. If you've got the battery capacity to run your furnace in the winter for those 4-5 day trips you've got your fridge covered. I ran my ARB in "test" mode (ie I wasn't going in/out of it during the test and after 6 days my dual batteries were still sitting up at 12.3something volts.
So starting from scratch a new 3way fridge would likely run ~$500 where as I got my ARB for $700. So it was a $200 premium and in my rig I've got no worries about going for 4-5days. $200 to be able to freeze stuff, not worry about being level, having a portable fridge, ETC. was worth while to me.
That said everyone use what you want, I just don't think your assumptions about a compressor fridge is all that accurate.
FYI: For $200 you could get a 80watt panel and a Morningstar 6A sunsaver charge controller.
I was talking about the cost of replacing my 3 way with a compressor, and I did note above all of the pro's of the compressor, almost, the same as yours. Maybe that was not clear in my 2 posts. I hadn't even figured in the cost of a second battery...
Anyway, where do you have a line on $200 panels and charge controllers? I've searched all over and the price range I see is between $400 and $1000 for an 80 watt kit. The cheapest 80 watt solar panels I've found are about $179 each, used, on craigslist. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks!
Roger
So starting from scratch a new 3way fridge would likely run ~$500 where as I got my ARB for $700. So it was a $200 premium and in my rig I've got no worries about going for 4-5days. $200 to be able to freeze stuff, not worry about being level, having a portable fridge, ETC. was worth while to me.
That said everyone use what you want, I just don't think your assumptions about a compressor fridge is all that accurate.
FYI: For $200 you could get a 80watt panel and a Morningstar 6A sunsaver charge controller.
I was talking about the cost of replacing my 3 way with a compressor, and I did note above all of the pro's of the compressor, almost, the same as yours. Maybe that was not clear in my 2 posts. I hadn't even figured in the cost of a second battery...
Anyway, where do you have a line on $200 panels and charge controllers? I've searched all over and the price range I see is between $400 and $1000 for an 80 watt kit. The cheapest 80 watt solar panels I've found are about $179 each, used, on craigslist. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks!
Roger